Derek Yaniger
Derek Yaniger is an American artist who worked for Marvel in the 1990s, penciling such titles as Hellraiser and Web of Spider-Man as well as Transformers: Generation 2.
Yaniger has also done illustration work for Cartoon Network. Today he does freelance magazine work, and sells original artwork heavily influenced by the illustration styles and Tiki culture of the 1950s. A book of his Tiki-styled work was compiled and published in 2008.
Yaniger lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and, judging by the linguistic style of his web site, would probably get along well with the Hot Rod Patrol.
Generation 2
In 1993, Yaniger was tapped as the lead artist of the initial Generation 2 comic series. To help distinguish this sequel-series from its predecessor, he established a distinctive visual style for the book marked by extremely large guns, extra weapons strapped to characters, heavy battle damage with smoke and mech fluid oozing from them, highly stylized character designs, and inconsistent proportions that'd likely make Pat Lee proud.
By issue 2, as Yaniger failed to meet deadlines, cartoony artist Manny Galan and classic TF artists Andrew Wildman & Geoff Senior were brought in to assist him with the work. Upon issue 3, he was replaced by Manny Galan who struggled to emulate Yaniger's gritty, angular style. Yaniger instead penciled the series' shorter secondary stories, although the fact that Galan penciled entire issues at times would suggest that Yaniger still had problems keeping up. By issue 10, he was replaced as auxiliary artist with Geoff Senior. Yaniger also provided cover illustrations for the comic's entire run.
- Pencils, Generation 2:
- #1 - War Without End!
- #2 - All or Nothing! (p. 1-7)
- #3 - Primal Fear! ("Old Evils!" backup story only)
- #4 - Devices and Desires! ("Tales of Earth Part One" backup story only)
- #5 - The Power and the Glory - cover only
- #6 - The Gathering Darkness ("Tales of Earth Part Three" backup story only)
- #7 - New Dawn ("Tales of Earth Part Four" backup story only)
- #8 - Escalation! ("Tales of Earth Part Five" backup story only)
- #9 - Swarm - cover only
- #10 - Total War! - cover only
- #11 - Dark Shadows! - cover only
- #12 - A Rage in Heaven! - cover only
Trivia
- Japanese artist Hidetsugu Yoshioka made a distinct effort to emulate Yaniger's art style for the Japanese Generation 2 story pages and mini-comics.
- The THS-02B Black Convoy figure comes with additional alternate heads (intended for use with the THS-02) that are based on Yaniger's cover art for issue #1 of the G2 comic, coming in both clean and "battle-damaged" versions.
- Another homage to his Generation 2 style came with 2008's Shattered Expectations spoof comic.
